On The Rebound

Monday

Nov 26, 2007 at 12:01 AMNov 26, 2007 at 7:27 PM

Waterfowl scientists are surveying waterfowl and observing their behavior to get an idea how birds are using the Emiquon Preserve, a 7,100-acre wetland restoration undertaken by The Nature Conservancy.

After all the plans are completed and computer models have been analyzed, it boils down to one thing: how wildlife — particularly waterfowl — respond to the redeveloping wetland at The Nature Conservancy’s Emiquon Preserve in Fulton County near Havana.

“Male, feeding; female, resting; female, feeding; male, feeding; male, locomotion,” says research scientist Randy Smith into a small voice recorder. Using a spotting scope, he scans a flock of ducks and makes note of what they are doing.Smith counts waterfowl from several stations at the preserve each week and also spends about an hour recording their behavior. He’s trying to find out if the number of birds using the preserve correlates to the amount of food available. If the number of birds on the preserve is down and most ducks are resting instead of feeding, it may tell waterfowl biologists that earlier-arriving ducks and coots ate everything in sight.

Smith works at the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Forbes Biological Station across the Illinois River. The survey has agreed to conduct waterfowl studies for The Nature Conservancy to provide some idea of how the new wetland is being used. Other scientists with the survey are monitoring aquatic vegetation growing in the lake and former drainage ditches, while others are watching the emerging fishery.

Former wetlands like Emiquon can be unbelievably resilient.

Scientists have said all along that a “seed bank” of native wetland vegetation would respond if wet conditions returned. Even for the faithful, it’s hard to believe that anything would remain in the soil after more than eight decades of intensive agriculture.

“One of the things we said was, it’s been 83 years since there has been permanent water out there and it took about two months for some of that vegetation to come back,” says Jason Beverlin, Illinois River program deputy director for the conservancy.

Plants like arrowhead and submerged aquatic plants such as coontail have returned.

“It’s been phenomenal,” Beverlin says. “It’s hard to put in words. People have to see it. They have to get out there on the water.”

The 7,100-acre Emiquon Preserve was a large farming operation before the conservancy purchased it in 2000. Its two lakes, Thompson and Flag, were cut off from the Illinois River by levees, drained and farmed by the 1920s.

Today, where corn once stood, wetland plants such as smartweed, cattails, wild millet and various sedges are emerging. In one area, wetland plants can

be seen growing between corn stalks left over from a past harvest.

“It’s amazing to see a pretty good wetland coming right in amidst the corn,” Smith says as he drives an all-terrain vehicle between stations where his counts are conducted.

“It’s absolutely amazing for me to see that.”

Somehow, the Thompson and Flag lake bed contours remain, and Thompson Lake has reappeared. A natural ridge separating the two also remains despite years of tillage.

Tharran Hobson, restoration manager, says information gathered by Smith and others with the Illinois Natural History Survey may be used to drive management decisions at the preserve.

“They are one of our main partners,” he says. “They certainly have the expertise to conduct these surveys.”

Hobson says the conservancy will use the numbers to look for a correlation between the number of waterfowl using the preserve with the presence of submerged aquatic vegetation like coontail. Submerged plants require

exceptionally clear water so sunlight can penetrate.

The public finds the survey information useful as well, Hosbon says, especially on the mornings when waterfowl hunting positions are drawn at the preserve.

“We were sure ready for some results,” he says. “Thirty thousand coots were pretty impressed with the site. They liked what we’ve done with it so far.”

All those coots and tens of thousands of ducks cleaned out the coontail, Hobson says.

But Smith says it will take time before the numbers can be properly interpreted.

“Until we have monitored this for a couple of years in a row, I don’t think we will have a real good handle on this,” he says. “We don’t want to jump to any conclusions or give anyone the wrong idea before we are pretty certain what is going on.”

Still, strong numbers from early in the duck season have dwindled recently. Smith says he doesn’t know yet if it has to do with available food or the vagaries of migration patterns.

Six thousand ducks counted at one station recently dropped to 1,200, and 5,000 to 6,000 in another plummeted to 700.

“And we haven’t reached peak migration yet,” he says. “There certainly hasn’t been any weather to force them out.”

Smith says he plans to keep counting until freeze-up and then resume in the spring when birds return.

Dry weather has shrunk Thompson Lake, and wetland plants that sprout and set seed when moist areas dry out are waiting at the water’s edge with food for spring migrating ducks, if water levels rise. Those areas along the lakeshore are as yet untouched by hungry ducks, but higher water could flood the lowland where they grow and give ducks all the access they need.

Moist, soil-loving wetland plants produce untold numbers of nutritious seeds that help waterfowl make the grueling migration trip south and then north again in the spring.

Ducks and geese also love waste corn, but corn mostly is sugar and lacks essential nutrients provided by native vegetation.

“The 20,000-plus waterfowl out there earlier this fall shows us that the native vegetation is the best for waterfowl,” Beverlin says. “They will eat flooded corn, but they need the native vegetation, too.”

Smith says he has enjoyed the task of monitoring waterfowl at the preserve and another parcel of land near Dickson Mounds Museum also owned by the conservancy.

“When things are hectic, it’s great to say, ‘Hey, I have to go count Emiquon.’”